As a recipient of the Health Science Librarians of Illinois (HSLI) 2018 Syed Maghrabi Scholarship, I would like to thank the HSLI 2018 Conference Planning Committee, the Syed Maghrabi Scholarship Committee, and everyone who participates in the Silent Auction, whose proceeds benefit the HSLI Scholarship Fund.

Collaboration, Communication, and Data Management are among the most important skills across all fields according to the Association of College and Research Libraries 2016 and 2018 Reports on Top Trends in Academic Libraries.

The HSLI 2018 Annual Conference, with its theme Rivers of Data, Streams of Knowledge, invited Continuing Education Presenters who targeted these skills.

Encouraging her audience to think strategically about building partnerships, Gwen discussed Key Factors for Successful Partnerships. For example, Gwen reminded us that Establishing Common Ground is a winning strategy.

Barriers to successful partnerships may include limited time, silos (tight-knit groups), or lack of clear direction. Success relies on patience and persistence.

Data Management: Why It Matters and What You Can Do about It was presented by Erin Foster, MSLS, Data Services Librarian, Indiana University School of Medicine, Ruth Lilly Medical Library. Erin is a former National Library of Medicine (NLM) fellow.

As Information Specialists, we have a key role in helping practitioners and the public manage and share data they produce and use.

Erin discussed national and state level initiatives that inform local data management efforts. One initiative is the National Institutes of Health CD2H Initiative. The National Center for Data to Health (CD2H) aims to promote data reuse and collaboration.

To build a workforce for data-driven research, the National Library of Medicine (NLM) enhances Workforce Development opportunities by offering data management courses for medical librarians, providers, researchers, and staff. In general, I find NLM courses on information topics to be very useful.

Peg’s session served as an overview of options available to professionals for sharing ideas and publications. It was meant to get people thinking strategically about how they are represented online.

Peg and her team discussed Tools for Scholarship (such as Mendeley), Identity Tools (such as ORCID), Social Media Tools (such as blogs), and Research Information Management (such as Pure). For example, this HSLI Newsletter blog is a good way to share ideas and manage a professional identity.

Increasingly, librarians are involved in tracking research dissemination and impact. Karen’s session provided a background on dissemination and demonstrated the practical application of a variety of tools.

The session included details such as, exploring social media platforms used to disseminate research, writing plain language research summaries, optimizing outputs for discoverability by search engines, and exploring tools that track alternative metrics. This information prompted me to browse the Galter website on Altmetrics.

Eric Edwards presented the Illinois State Library Update and the Illinois Association of College and Research Libraries Update. Eric, who is the new IACRL President for 2018-19, said that IACRL is looking for opportunities to collaborate with other library organizations, including HSLI. Eric asked that we contact him with ideas at EEdwards@ilos.net.

Joining us by Skype, Jacqueline Leskovec presented the NNLM/GMR Update. Staff from the Reaching Across Illinois Library System (RAILS) and the Illinois Heartland Library System (IHLS) presented in-person updates.

Lightning Talks

Although I did not attend the Lightning Talks, I appreciated Nancy’s Reception, as it gave me an opportunity to network. By chance, I chatted with Liesl Cottrell from Resurrection University about how librarians came to the rescue when a fire extinguisher exploded. Whew!

Relaxation

Before Nancy’s Reception, I took a group Sunset Walk along the river. I also enjoyed the Burpee Museum presentation during the reception.